The division within ourselves that has caused us to see with two eyes instead of one is not an eternal one.  Though lengthy when measured in time, it is still a stage on the journey of the human soul and of the collective human soul.  It is a temporary part of the journey, not the goal.  Now, we must learn to become whole again and to find unity within ourselves.  We must awaken to the separated consciousness that we have lived in and perceive that its source is the darkness which has created a state of separation within us.  But what is 'darkness'?

    Darkness is a cosmic energy that affects motivation and feeling, that along with light is a part of Creation.  It causes us to experience a sense of separation from God and from God's love. It tells us that we are real and that our feelings are real, but that God is not real. On one level, darkness may be thought of as the energy of separated intellect.  This energy creates a filter over perception which causes us to believe that only what we see, feel, touch, and smell is real, and that everything else is an illusion.  It invites us to consider God's reality as a fabrication that we make up in order to comfort ourselves because we are in need of comfort, rather than a substantial reality.

    The energy of darkness creates a sense of isolation in the Universe. It fuels the negative emotional states that we experience as human beings and leads us into these states causing despair, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear. Even if at other moments we remain faithful to the vision of the sacred and the holy, in moments of darkness we turn away from this vision and sink into feelings of doubt or despair that are all too easy to become submerged in.  Without even knowing that we do this, we let go of the one thing that could reverse this movement into darkness, namely, our heart's trust in God's reality, even in the presence of our mind's doubt.

II.

Human beings have become mixtures of light and darkness because it was God's plan at the dawn of Creation, born out of love, to give to all souls the precious gift of freedom. Without free-will we would not be a fully-formed self.  We would not be able to participate in the sacred Covenant.  This Covenant is based on our needing to choose to live in the light and in the presence of the sacred. Without the full range of choice open to us, we would choose what was of the light but we would choose it with an incomplete self, a partial self.

Free will allows us to choose separation from God if we want to. It also allows us to choose unity and oneness with God. This is what we are meant to do with our freedom - to create one world of heaven and earth by vowing to live a sacred life and choosing to have God at the center of that life.  In this way do we fulfill our part of the Covenant with God, made at the beginning of time.

Some may wonder whether such freedom is worth the extreme pain and sense of isolation that has been part of the human experience, for the price that has been paid to experience freedom of choice has been severe.  And yet without such freedom, we could not have become the individuals that we are. We could not have become ourselves.  In order for individuation to take place, freedom had to be.  This gift of our own existence is God's most precious gift of love to us. It allows us to shape our futures and to become whole in consciousness as well as in essence. As a result of  freedom, we become capable of choosing a path that leads us away from God, yet we also become capable of finding the path of return. We are each on this journey through time, moving in holy purpose through the experience of separation/individuation toward unity and the way home.

The road back has historically been called redemption.  Today, it is called purification and it is the means for returning to God's sacred reality. We choose the way back when we embrace the path of light while acknowledging the darkness within. This movement of awareness allows the darkness within us to separate from the light while we stand in the presence of trust and love.

All that is dark can be redeemed by light because it is the strongest power in the universe.  It is the same force through which all of Creation came into being. To be redeemed by light is to become it. We become it by allowing it to work within us, first, by separating the darkness from the light so that we can observe each. Second, by enabling us to not identify with that which is dark, but instead to feel upheld in our sacred identities. As this happens, the darkness becomes dissolved in the light of our consciousness and we are set free.

The process of purification is based on our desire to be healed into wholeness and on the prayer and longing that arises out of this desire.  Yet, it also arises out of God's grace and an inflow of light that has little to do with any effort that we might make, other than the effort of asking.  Asking opens a way for light to flow through as we strive to become light. The grace and mercy that is involved in this is in keeping with the saying: "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:7) This is the way of purification and also the way of Divine blessing. Such a way leads to the overcoming of the power formerly given to the forces of darkness and separation.  It reinstates us in the full splendor of the light of God and in the light of our own being.  This light belongs to all souls and has nothing to do with doctrine or religious belief. It can be invoked, prayed to, felt, and participated in. It is the light of our Divine essence - the light that was there in the beginning through which all things were created. It is this light that is the rightful heritage of all children of God and the means for returning home to a state of unity - one in which the eye that we see with is single, and the heart that we feel with is One.

Related Writings:

Light and Darkness - Introduction

Light and Darkness - Part II

Other writings on Light and Darkness

Article Section -  Purification

Hebrew Letters